Policy:Canon

Revision as of 17:49, 11 July 2009 by Revanche (talk | contribs) (Category:Policies|Canon)

The BattleTechWiki's Canon Policy is simple: BattleTechWiki does not seek to define canonicity within this site. Instead, that is left up to the individual guest. BTW allows all things BattleTech into its pages, segregating unlicensed material from articles on licensed subjects.

As established in the BTW Policy:Notability, "Anything that has to do with BattleTech warrants inclusion" on the BattleTechWiki. However, it is sometimes difficult to discern what is canon for the fictional BattleTech universe, and the canonicity of a great deal of information remains unclear. This is discussed in detail in the Canon article.

The policy adopted by this Wiki is not to decide on the canonicity of a given source or piece of information, and to leave it up to the individual user instead to decide what information he deems canonical for his vision of the BattleTech universe, with the assistance of the information provided here. To this end, the BattleTechWiki shall:

  • present the current state of the canonicity issue (in digested form), in the Canon article;
  • cite sources for information presented;
  • and clearly mark any information that is not taken from an undoubtedly licensed source (or that is un-licensed) with appropriate tags.

Licensed Material

As expressed above, BattleTechWiki segregates licensed material from that produced as fan creations (or fanon). The BattleTech license has been awarded to computer game companies, book publishers, miniature producers and decal artists. As long as a BattleTech product was produced by a company holding a valid license (or by the license owner), the product is considered licensed and may have an article (either source or subject) without the fan tag being applied. The following is a list of license owners and holders (and may not yet be all-inclusive):

License Owners:

License Holders:

  • BattleCorps (a division of InMediaRes Productions, LLC)
  • Catalyst Game Labs (a division of InMediaRes Productions, LLC)
  • Fantasy Productions (Fantasy Productions Medienvertriebsgesellschaft GmbH in Germany)
  • FASA Studio (formerly FASA Interactive Technologies, a division of Microsoft Game Studios)
  • Fighting Pirannha Graphics
  • Ironwind Metals
  • RCW Enterprises
  • Roc Books (a division of Penguin Group)
  • Saban Entertainment
  • Virtual World Entertainment Group (formerly Virtual World Entertainment)

Unlicensed Material

The BattleTech universe gathers much of its depth due to the efforts of its fans. Many former fans that made supporting materials have gone on to join one of the several teams that produce licensed materials. BattleTechWiki itself is a child-project of Sarna.net, a website created in 1994 by Nic Jansma, first as a database for fan creations (or fanon) and then with a forum in support of his BattleTech interests.

The sources of fan creation are incalculable. Some have the air of near-officialness applied to them, either due to their professional quality or because of nods in their directions by the license owners or holders. A very abbreviated list of some fanon products includes:

  • BattleTechnology magazine, by Pacific Rim Publishing Company
  • Combat Books, by Nova Game Designs, inc.
  • Invasion3042
  • MegaMek
  • NetMech
  • Neveron
  • Custom Rules (for CBT, CBT:RPG or any of the other BattleTech-based games)
  • any custom-created article on characters, weapons, vehicles, units, factions, etc., hosted on BattleTechWiki


Again, this list is far from complete. The key is the license. If the product was released under license, it is licensed; if not, it is a fan creation.

Articles on Licensed Sources

BattleTechWiki defines a source article as an article on the site that specifically addresses one specific source of information about the overall BattleTech universe. These articles often form the basis for citations for the subject articles (the majority of the articles on BattleTechWiki). Licensed examples of source articles include:

These articles are generally established in a similar manner: basic facts (price, producer, production code and year, creators, etc.) a summary of the source, what it includes, some notes regarding the source and a brief analytical discussion as to the general validity of the source within the BattleTech universe. Links to both internal and external articles can be found in the See Also section, when relevant.

Articles on Licensed Subjects

BattleTechWiki defines a subject article as an article on the site that specifically addresses one aspect of the BattleTech universe, whether it a BattleMech, a war, a character, a faction, or any of a myriad number of subjects that have been introduced in the vast breadth of BattleTech. Some examples of a licensed subject article include:

While all licensed sources may be used to create, build and expand a source article, due to the nature of the source materials, incomplete data and obfuscations may be deliberately inserted in the products in order to provide a sense of perspective from the characters providing the data. Some data may be patently false, intended to amuse the reader; others may be in the right direction, but slightly off-track and some may be written in a style that suggests the data is verifiable from an in-universe perspective. All three examples are suitable for inclusion in any subject article, but there may be a desire to indicate some or significant doubt towards the data's veracity exists. Two immediate methods of handling this are clear: 1) segregate the dubious data in a sub-section within the article, with elaboration towards why it might be less-than-reliable, 2) insert the material within the main body of the article and create a ==Source Analysis== section [see Brotherhood_of_Randis#Source_Analysis for an example] where the data is discussed. Both of these methods allow the individual reader to decide whether or not the data is suspect or relevant. But, if any doubts remain, please feel free to open a topic on the article's discussion/talk page.

As BattleTechWiki strives to be as precise an encyclopedia as possible, it is strongly encouraged to include citations to actual sources (to include the source's title and referencing page number, if applicable). It is imperative fan-created material is not incorporated into licensed subject articles and, if any significant doubt exists regarding an uncited statement, the statement may be removed from the article until either properly cited or consensus agrees the statement applies (in the absence of a citation). Guidance on citations can be found in the Help section.

Fanon Articles

BattleTechWiki encourages and accepts fan-created articles, whether they be individually derived or done as a group effort (such as by members of a Neveron faction or a roleplaying group). However, in order to foster a sense of trust in the articles on licensed materials, BattleTechWiki Editors strongly enforce the segregation of fan creations from the other articles. This is done by the Creator (or a later Editor) tagging each fan creation article with the following code at the top: {{Fanon}}. Fan-created material may not be included within the body of any licensed articles, but may be linked to in the ==See Also (Fandom)== section (please feel free to add this to any articles, if it is not already present). We also ask that fan created articles not be included in any categories that does not have a derivative of the word 'fan' or 'custom' in the category name.


We appreciate your adherence to this core policy and welcome you to actively join the community of Users, Creators and Editors of BattleTechWiki.

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